RECENT NEWS

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has unveiled a new online portal to make it quicker and easier to access its portfolio of framework agreements when contracting authorities want to buy goods or services.

A 25-year-old autistic woman has shared how remote working has helped maintain her busy career, explaining that by working this way she is able to control factors such as all her sensory inputs in a way that is not possible in the office.

With ERIC 2022/2023 data highlighting an 18 per cent rise in fires recorded by NHS Trusts across England in 2022/23 – to 1,372 – equating to almost four fires a day across the NHS, Assa Abloy Opening Solutions UK & Ireland is emphasising ‘the utmost importance’ of correct fire door specification, installation, and ongoing maintenance with inspections.

Tilbury Douglas has celebrated another ‘construction milestone’ to enhance emergency and urgent care for patients at Stepping Hill Hospital with the handover of phase two, the temporary Majors Department at the hospital, which will eventually become the Same Day Emergency Care Centre.

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has paid tribute to Skanska UK Technical operations lead, Rob Lambert, who died recently, describing his contribution to the industry as ‘immense’ – ‘ thanks to his generosity of spirit and willingness to share his experience and technical knowledge’.

On 1 March North London Mental Health Partnership marked the handover of Highgate East, a new NHS mental health inpatient building on the Camden, Haringey and Islington border, which the Partnership says will help it achieve its vision for ‘Better Mental Health. Better Communities. Better Lives’.

Villeroy & Boch has completed its acquisition of all operating companies of the Ideal Standard Group, with the latter to be integrated as a separate part of the Villeroy & Boch Group now that all necessary approvals by anti-trust authorities have been received.

Northern Ireland-based offsite manufacturer, McAvoy, continues to invest strongly in the growth of its SmartSpace temporary building fleet in response to growing demand across the healthcare, pharma, education, and commercial sectors.

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has published technical guidance designed to help contractors make more informed decisions when selecting suspension systems for building services.

Southampton-based Truvox International has signed an agreement with Eindhoven-based i-Team Professional to bring two of its products to the UK cleaning and FM market under the Truvox brand.

Thousands of children and young people will receive earlier, easy access mental health interventions at 24 hubs in local communities, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced.

Bipolar UK, the UK’s only national charity dedicated to the supporting people affected by bipolar, has joined a new £4.3 million Mental Health Platform Research Hub, which it says is set to advance understanding around the diagnosis and treatment of severe mental illness (SMI), including bipolar.

National fit-out and refurbishment specialist contractor, Willmott Dixon Interiors, has completed the multi-phased refurbishment of a mental health hospital in Warwick.

As part of scheme to upgrade the energy efficiency of the Emergency Department at Epsom Hospital in Surrey during the COVID-19 pandemic, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust Hospital specified REHAU’s curtain walling and TOTAL70C windows.

Compliance Group, an integrated provider of safety and regulatory compliance services across electrical, fire and water, has recently announced a merger with Fire Safe Services – which will join its Fire Division to provide fire detection and alarm systems and associated services to its customers.

A new report from the NHS Confederation, Building the health of the nation: priorities for a new government, says that with the UK NHS having received lower capital investment than other healthcare systems internationally and other industries domestically, there needs to be a significant rise in NHS capital spending across the UK.

Following last summer’s announcement by Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, of an agreement to work towards mutual recognition of professional qualifications in engineering between the UK and the US, delegates from both nations have met in London for further discussions.

Trials of new wireless technologies to help improve patient care and strengthen connectivity in A&Es and ambulance bays are set to launch across seven NHS Trusts, following new funding from NHS England.

The authors of a new report from The King’s Fund, ‘Making care closer to home a reality’, say failure to grow and invest in primary and community health and care services – despite successive governments stating a commitment to this agenda – is ‘one of the most significant and long-running policy failures of the past 30 years’.

The supplier of a compact ‘ground-breaking’ fire suppression device ‘says it could be poised to help extinguish the second-most common UK cause of fires – electrical fires – ‘in seconds’,